Starships Introduction
The cold stillness of space is shattered by the chaos of dozens of turbolasers discharging at once. An Imperial Star Destroyer fires broadsides at a Nebulon B frigate, the two passing one another in opposite directions like oceangoing ships passing in the night. In between exchanges of heavy weapons fire, a trio of TIE fighters twists between glowing laser blasts while two X-wing fighter mimic their movements, swirling around in a deadly dance. A Corellian Corvette, leaking atmosphere and listing heavily, slams into the bridge of the Star Destroyer, setting off a chain reaction that destroys both vessels. Sound exciting> It does. Want it in your Star Wars campaign? You should. This is what Starships of the Galaxy is all about. This book is designed to give Gamemasters and players everything they need to inject space combat, on both smll nd large scales, into any Star Wars Roleplaying Game campaign. This book contains new options for heroes looking to make their mark on the galaxy from the cockpit of a starfighter and features information for Gamemasters to help make this happen. Whether you are simply looking for some new ships to throw into the mix or want to make space combat a larger part of your campaign, this book provides everything you need to enhance your Star Wars starship-based experience. Lock S-Foils in Attack Position The contents of this book are intended to allow players and Gamemasters to inject starship combat into an ongoing campaign. the Star Wars Roleplaying Game Saga Edition core rulebook presents basic rules for space combat that mimic the rules for character combat and proide a quick and easy way to integrate starship combat into the game. Although those rukes are perfectly fine for most encounters, some players and GMs may wish to incude more depth and diversity in their space combat. Likewise, Gamemasters who want to run a campaign that focus on a starfighter squadron will likely need more robust rules for space combat and more options for enemies, allowing them to create diverse encounters in starships just as they would at character scale. This book was designed as a campaign supplement that expands starship combat to be more than just the occasional chase scene in which the heroes escape rom the TIE fighters without engaing in serious combat. By using the options in this book, a Gamemaster can shift the focus in a campaign to starship combat or simply expand existing space combat encounters to make them more exciting. Though adding options from this book will likely add complexity to your game, the new mechanics presented here will expand and enhance your spacefaring adventures. Although many of the rules in this book can be used for vehicles on the ground (or even in the air), most of the book focuses on starships operating in space. Strship statistics still contain atmospheric movement speeds (following the standard format established in the core rulebook), but the new mechanics are mostly geared toward starship combat. Get Everyone Involved In the past, one of the more common drawbacks to starship combat was that it left many players sitting and waiting for the encounter to end due to their leck of starship-relevant skills. Even when participating, many characters found their options limited by their roles aboard the ship. One of the primary goals of Starships of the Galaxy is to make starship combat more accessible to characters of all roles and archetypes. For example, the noble will find information on using their talents for inspiration and leadership in starship combat, while the scoundrel will be able to disrupt and damage their opponents just like they do in character-scale combat. Starships of the Galaxy should encourage all players—not just pilots and gunners—to get involved and use their special abilities in space combat scenes. Moreover, this book presents a variety of new options for the core classes and relevant prestige classes (such as the ace pilot and the officer). Members of each class will find new talents (and even new talent trees), some new uses for [skills, and some new feats that will round out their characters. The goal of these new abilities is to get each character more involved in space combat. The Saga Edition rules set goes a long way toward encouraging this behavior; even characters untrained in the Pilot skill have some capacity to pilot a ship, and their ability to make attacks with the vehicle weapons is equally enhanced by many of the same talents and feats that affect normal ranged attacks. Essentially, any character’s basic abilities make that character capable of participating in space combat one way or another. Starship Specialists One of the best uses for this book, as mentioned abov, is enabling characters to take full advantage of the new starship combat rules presented here. These new options range from the aforementioned talents and feats to an entirely new space combat maneuver system. Similar in design to the Force system from the saga Edition core rulebook, this maneuvers system turns starship combat into more than just a matter of moving and shooting. With the expanded system presented in this book, starship combat becomes a more tactical affair for some characters, letting them do incredible things when behind a lfight stick. Fortunately for heroes not piloting the ship, there are plenty of new options in this book as well. Engineers and other technically inclined characters will find a number of new rules in this book that should make it easier for them to jump in and participate in space combat. Similarly, many of the starship maneuvers can be used by gunners as well as pilots, allowing weapons operator to take advantage of special bonuses and abilities just as pilots might. With this book in hand, you won’t have to be an ace pilot just to be effective at starship combat, encouraging all character types to take part in space combat encounters. Starship Codex Though the new character options certainly make starship combat more appealing, the bulk of this book is dedicated to presenting statistics and information for a wide variety of starships, ranging from small starfighters to massive capital ships and space stations. Players might be tempted to view this book as a catalog of potential purchases, and as heroes rise in stature and wealth, many new options (including those available in this book) become open to them. The Starship Codex also serves Gamemasters as a collection of challenges just waiting to be thrown at the heroes. Whther you are looking for a new personal starfighter or the perfect ship to add to an admiral’s fleet, that secion should have you covered. The Starship Codex presents ships of al types and sizes, drawn from the full breadth of the Star Wars saga and Expanded Univers of comics, novels, and video games. the majority of the statistics in this book are for the stock, unmodified versions of these ships, making it easier for players to obtain these ships and make them their own. For example, rather than presenting statistics for the Ebon Hawk (from the Knights of the Old Republic video game series), this section contains statistics for the stock version of this ship (the Dynamic-class freighter), which players can then modify to their own tastes. In some cases, statistics are presented for “famous” versions of these ships, but each one also contains the stock statistics for the vessel without modifications. Make it Your Own Starships of the Galaxy presents a complet guide to modifying your starship to make it the way you want it. Han Solo’s famous line about having made a few “special modifications” to the Millennium Falcon comes to life in the form of the starship modification rules. Want to put a new engine in your freighter? Want to upgrade the laser cannons on your X-wing? Want to give that old Corellian Corvette some new hull plating Now you can, and it’s not just a matter of paying someone else to do it. Techie characters will enjoy getting their hands dirty and making the modifications themselves, using new abilities to enhance the modifications. The starship modification rules can also be used to build a starship from scratch. Though doing this is far more time-consuming than heroes simply purchasing a new starship and enhancing it to fit their needs, these rules allow you to take a standard, base model of ship and add each component individually to come up with a custom spacecraft. Though most good outlaw techs will prefer the tinkering and reworking of a starship that the modification rules provide, a noble seeking their own custom space transport might use these rules to orer a ship directly from the factory, giving them a ship that is unlike any other vessel in the galaxy. Additionally, some of the ships in this book are presented with deckplans suited for use by adventuring heroes. These deckplans allow palyers and Gamemasters to create interesting adventures aboard the starship itself; after all, you never know when you’re going to nee to repel boarders or ambush stormtroopers after hiding in your own smuggling compartments. Enhanced Encounters Gamemasters will find this book exceptionally useful for designing starship combat encounters. One of the primary goals of this book is to help make space combat just as exciting, dynamic, and engaging as character combat. One of the means by which this is accomplished is in helping Gamemasters design interesting encounters. An encounter’s design is critical to holding the players’ interest, and the advice and options in this book should make it easier for the Gamemaster to keep all memebers of the party—not just the pilot and gunners—engaged and interested in space combat encounters. Good space combat encounter design involves more than just populating the battlefield with interesting enemies. The Space Combat section provides new options for space combat terrain (such as debris fields and gaseous nebulae) and helps Gamemasters introduce complications and other new factors into combat to increase tension or provide a sense of urgency. Gamemasters who take full advantage of this book shoul be able to create starship combat encounters that not only challenge their players but also create memorable battles like those seen in the Star Wars films. Updated Statistics This book features a number of updated and expanded statistics for ships appearing in the Star Wars Roleplaying Game Saga Edition core rulebook. In some cases, th statistics in this book are different from those featured in the core rulebook, having been changed due to new ruls presented in this book or to improve game play. Although the statistics in the core rulebook will still work for your game, those found in this book should supersede the ones from the core rulebook in most cases. However, since no two starships of the same model need to be identical, Gamemasters should feel free to use the statistics from both books to provide variety in game play. __NOEDITSECTION__ Category:Gameplay Category:Beginning Concepts Category:Starships of the Galaxy